


The Devil's in the Details

by UniversalWerewolf



Category: Original Work, Shards of Satan
Genre: Demons, Found Family, Gen, Gender non conforming character, Gods, Kinda?, M/M, Minor Character Death, Nonbinary Character, Other, Temporary Character Death, The Boss will adopt you, all OCs - Freeform, and that's a threat, like they all die but not really, oh and, the MacElroy parents are shit, transmale character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-28
Updated: 2021-01-28
Packaged: 2021-03-14 12:41:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 4,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29046297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UniversalWerewolf/pseuds/UniversalWerewolf
Summary: When Sunshine is shot by a man with the same face as him, The Boss is forced to heal him with a piece of his own soul. The soul piece ends up healing Sunshine more then expected, causing Sunshine to do the impossible - recover from amnesia. Sunshine must now go find the man who shot him - his brother.
Relationships: Honey/Sweetheart, Lullaby & Sunshine, Teddy & Sunshine, The Boss & His Kids





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> TW for animal(demon) death and blood

The freckled boy ran, and he ran, and he ran. He had no idea what he was running from, just that if he stopped; he would die. Running away from death wasn’t fun, no fun at all in fact. What made it worse was that the boy was not wearing shoes or socks, he was sure that his feet were bleeding madly by now. He had stopped feeling pain a while ago. He saw a red glow up ahead, and raised his gun. What he saw was not a person, it was a glowing dog.  
He should have felt scared; he should have felt something. But he didn’t, so he raised his gun (where had he gotten that anyways?) and shot the glowing demon dog before it even had time to bark.  
The next thing he knew, a bat was looking at him with its four eyes. All the boy could think was; since when did bats have four eyes?  
Finding no answer in his head, he decided that bats had always had four eyes and stood on two legs and had sunset colored wings. Oh, and the four arms, did we mention the four arms? Yeah, the bipedal, four armed, four eyed, and sunset winged bat. What was wrong with that? Nothing, apparently.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW for temporary character death and blood

Sunshine fell down the stairs. There was nothing else to say about it, he simply fell down the stairs. He had probably just forgotten how to walk again. It was nothing. Oh, did we mention that this is the same boy who met the bat. Yeah, he’s that boy.  
The boy got up and laughed. Falling down stairs wasn’t fun unless you make it a joke. The four other boys in the abandoned house in the middle of the woods rolled their eyes. Sunshine always fell down the stairs. It was basically his religion now.  
Maybe it was his memory, or maybe it was the mirror.  
Sunshine always fell down the stairs when he didn’t have his mask on, almost as though he recognized the boy in the mirror. But he never did, thanks to his poor memory. Not being able to recognize his own face was hard, and he always felt like he was seeing someone else in the mirror when he took off his mask; which is why he almost never took off his mask.  
On his particular day, Honey had made him brush his teeth, Sunshine being Sunshine didn’t want to in front of the mirror. Somehow, he had managed to avoid it until he forgot to put his mask on and had fallen down the stairs.  
“Sunshine!” exclaimed Honey. “Seriously?!”  
“Whoops, must’ve forgotten how to walk again!” said Sunshine jokingly.  
“Again? Man, you should talk to the Boss about that,” jokingly said Lullaby.  
“Ah, I fell down the stairs last week,” said Sweetheart.  
“Yeah, but you were being lazy,” spoke Bunny.  
They all laughed about that. Sweetheart was always too lazy to do anything. It was almost like they were normal boys again, not guarding a demon inside a forbidden forest.  
Oh, the demon? Did we mention him? Yes, we did, don’t act so confused. I’ll even write the line again for you;  
“Again? Man you should talk to the Boss about that,” jokingly said Lullaby.  
You see? We mention him right there! Up there, do you see the words? The demon is called The Boss. Oh, and we mentioned him way before that too. No, he’s not the dog. He’s the bat, silly!  
Ah yes, the bipedal, four armed, four eyed, sunset winged bat who has taken in all these boys.  
Honey, Sweetheart, Bunny, Lullaby, and Sunshine.  
Cute names, don’t you think? Yeah, those aren’t their real names, obviously. Who would name their kid Bunny?! Well, the Boss would, but that’s not important.  
Oh, here he comes now!  
“I heard my name,” said the bipedal, four armed, four eyed, and sunset winged bat matter-of-factly.  
“Yes, sorry, but I was only mentioning you to Sunshine,” said Lullaby.  
“Why?” the bat tilted his head. “He already knows me.”  
“He was…wait, what were you doing again?” asked Sunshine.  
“I was saying that Sunshine should go to you about his falling down the stairs problem,” said Lullaby.  
“Ah, I see,” said the Boss.  
“You probably see a lot, y’know? With your four eyes?” laughed Lullaby.  
“Oh, yes. Jokes, how fun,” there was the tiniest bit of humor in the Boss’ voice. “I do believe I see more than humans like you five. Not in the way of eyes, but rather in the way of senses.”  
Lullaby laughed. “Well, you learn something new every day.”  
The demon bat went away with a quick goodbye and the five boys were left alone. Bunny handed Sunshine his forgotten mask, and things were normal. Well, as normal as you can get guarding a demon’s territory. Lullaby went back to playing his stolen video games, Bunny and Sweetheart went back to watch the camera, and Honey went to make pancakes. Sunshine was left alone with the wisps of a memory. All Sunshine ever had was wisps of memories, every time he thought he had remembered something; he forgot it the next second. It always went on like this; Sunshine was never able to remember anything. It was almost funny, almost.  
He always felt like he was missing something, or maybe even someone. He had a faint memory of a terrified woman’s face, but he could never remember who she was. He could never remember who he was either. He had no clue what his name was, but he felt like if he heard it he would know. So far, in the eleven months that he had been a part of this certain group, he had yet to hear anything like his name, nothing even remotely close.  
Sunshine also had no idea how old he was or even when his birthday was. He felt like he was around sixteen, but he could never be sure.  
The boy spaced out for a little while on the couch before Sweetheart came up to talk to him.  
“There are some people you need to drive off,” said Sweetheart.  
“Alright,” said Sunshine. If he could remember anything at all, it was patterns. People came into the woods, they got driven off by either Honey or Sunshine. Lullaby replaced the cameras, and the other two watched the cameras. It was as simple as that.  
Sunshine ran through the forest, feeling the wind through his hair and hearing the familiar clomp-clomp of his boots hitting the ground. These missions were always simple. Just chase off the offenders. Demons were very picky about who they let into their territories. Really, Sunshine should have been honored to be accepted into this demon’s territory, but of course he had no clue who this demon really was. No one did, not one of the boys or anyone intruding. Not even Mother, the Boss’ rival who was always trying to steal away the boys.  
The freckled boy ran, and eventually, he was face to face with himself.  
Except that it wasn’t Sunshine, as this boy was older and didn’t have the slightly lighter than the other eye, he didn’t have Sunshine’s mask or clothes, in fact he was holding a camera in one hand and a gun in the other. Sunshine was distracted, he knew that face; he knew it from somewhere.  
Then, Sunshine heard a loud bang and felt extreme pain in his stomach. He coughed up blood, which was hard and drowning when you were wearing a mask. Sunshine fell over and his head hit the ground hard. The older Sunshine was already gone, not wanting to stay to see what his deed had done.  
He had gotten his picture and left, shooting the ghost had not been something he had expected to do or to work. He had thought that they were ghosts, not human beings.  
Sunshine tried to breathe, he really did. Blood was getting in his mouth, blood that he had just thrown up, and his mask was really not helping. He wondered what the others would think, would he die? Was their sibling bond not enough to save him? Would they care? Would the Boss care?  
The last question was answered for him, as the Boss was right by his side, a horrified look on his face. The Boss, sensing that there was not long for one of his precious sons, pressed his hand to the bullet wound. Sunshine screamed, it was pain like he had never felt before. Almost as though the demon bat was commanding every sensory organ in his body to fail, almost as though the demon bat was ordering him to be cut up alive, almost as though the Boss was healing every wound he had ever had by forcing it open.  
Sunshine would not wake up that night.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No TWs for this chapter I don't believe

The Boss had locked himself in his room for three days straight, never even a peek outside to see what was going on. He never answered when his name was called anymore.  
Both Sunshine and the Boss were going through pain that they had never experienced before. Pain that the Boss hoped wouldn’t happen ever again.  
First, it had been Sweetheart, who drowned in panic, then it had been Honey, who had accidentally shot himself, then it had been Bunny, who had gotten a severe chill and couldn’t get out of bed for days, then it had been Lullaby, who had gotten a wound infected, and now it was Sunshine, who had gotten shot by someone who the Boss would never forgive, yet hopefully never find again.  
The Boss didn’t like killing, it was…inhumane. Well, says the demon, who is anything but human. But still, killing was terrible and caused too many problems.  
Bringing people back hurt like hell.  
On the fourth day, when the Boss had enough strength to face the one he brought back, he exited his room upon hearing his name.  
Lullaby was ecstatic. He jumped and ran to hug his adoptive father. Sure enough, Sunshine, with a tired looked on his face, was standing by Honey.  
“Boss, are you sure that you should be out of bed?” asked Honey.  
“I am fine,” was the Boss’ response.  
“Do you even have a bed?” asked Sweetheart, who had forgone his mask and was sitting calmly on their stolen couch.  
“Yes,” said the Boss. “It is a large lizard heat rock.” The Boss was both joking and not; he really did have a hot rock, but it wasn’t from a pet store.  
Everyone laughed; even the Boss let loose a small chuckle.  
“Sunshine,” the Boss turned to face the boy who was also without his mask. “Are you okay?”  
“I believe so,” said Sunshine.  
“Good,” the Boss nodded and went to make himself some human waffles, he couldn’t help it; he loved human carb food.  
Sunshine followed him wearily. “Boss?” he spoke softly.  
The Boss turned around, frozen waffle stuck halfway in his mouth. He swallowed the thing whole and asked his newest son what was wrong.  
“I…who shot me?” asked Sunshine. Before the Boss could answer, Sunshine said something else. “Did I shoot me?”  
“What do you mean by that?” asked the Boss, tilting his head in his normal manner.  
“I saw myself. Like, I had a gun, and I shot me…but it wasn’t me. It couldn’t have been me!” said Sunshine.  
“I still do not understand. I did not see the man who had shot you, but it was not you.”  
“But he looked like me,” said Sunshine with a pained look on his face. It was almost like he was trying to remember something.  
Reminded of Sunshine’s early set amnesia, the Boss tilted his head farther, almost altering his body posture to tilt itself.  
“How are you remembering?” asked the Boss.  
Sunshine now had a blank face on, almost like his mask. “What were we talking about?”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW for talk of killing parents and mention of cults

With that started a whole new trend around the abandoned house in the middle of the woods. Sunshine would seemingly remember something only to forget it the next minute, but the minutes lengthened.  
Once, Sunshine even remembered the location of the places that he lived, his birthplace in fact.

“Yeah, because you’re not hot,” said Honey. “In all of those clothes, like seriously, a sweater, a jacket, gloves and boots…oh and cameo pants to top it all off!”  
They all laughed at that.  
“It’s not my fault that I’m so hot,” Sunshine posed. “I was born in Hawaii and lived there for about nine years!”  
No one laughed at that, no one even spoke until the Boss came downstairs.  
“What is of the uppity?” asked the Boss.  
“Uhh, it’s ‘what’s up’ not ‘what is of the uppity’” corrected Honey.  
Sunshine had the blank look on his face again.  
“Sunny remembered where he was born…Hawaii,” said Bunny.  
“Hawaii is a nice place, why the problem?” asked the Boss. “We all know that Sunshine is recovering from amnesia.”  
“Wait, you can recover from amnesia?” asked Lullaby.  
“No, that is the point. We don’t know what is going on,” simply said the Boss. Then he turned and left, not wanting to give away that he had likely healed Sunshine more than expected.  
He was selfish; he did not want to go through the pain of healing something like that again. He was sure Sunshine would be fine…hopefully.

Sunshine got better, but he also got worse. When he remembered things, he suffered, but when he didn’t remember things, he suffered more.  
Sunshine could now recognize the face in the mirror. It was his, Toby’s. But it wasn’t Teddy’s, and that’s what made him suffer most.  
Because now Sunshine had a brother, and it had been his brother who had shot him, and now Sunshine would stop at nothing to see him again, even if it meant he would get shot again.  
Sunshine started to make plans in his head; afraid to say them out loud and have them rejected and get laughed at.  
If he just left his mask behind…maybe not dress in the same exact clothing so that the other hunters wouldn’t recognize him as the ghost who haunted the woods…  
But Sunshine would eventually forget, just like he always did. He would forget his brother for a second and lose all his knowledge. It was worse than losing a life; it was like gaining a whole new one only to lose it once again, repeatedly.  
So one night, Sunshine remembered all of his plans. Not wanting to lose any time, he put on a normal dark blue t-shirt and normal blue jeans and normal black shoes.  
He left his mask behind. When he went to leave his bedroom shared with Lullaby, he accidentally tripped over Lullaby’s leg that was over the edge of the bed.  
Lullaby awoke with a start, and seeing Sunshine in his normal cloths, put a very confused look on his face. There was normally no talking when they slept, they never even snored as to not wake up the Boss, who burned things when…well, whenever really. When he was confused, when he was sleepy, when he was angry…once he had even set a pancake on fire because he was happy!  
Sunshine put a finger to his lips and walked out the door. Lullaby, after putting on shoes, followed him. Sunshine gave him a look, and then decided that it would be better to have someone who could remember most things with him.  
So the two boys walked down into the woods, neither talking until they were sure that they wouldn’t wake up the Boss and accidentally set fire to the whole house.  
“Where are you going?” asked Lullaby.  
“To find my brother, I can’t just…leave him,” said Sunshine.  
“Hate to break it to you, but you probably already did.”  
“Well, not really, it’s kind of complicated. You see, he abandoned me first thing he could, planned to come back for me one day, but he never did. I was left with my parents,” explained Sunshine.  
“Oh,” said Lullaby. “So you left your parents to be here?”  
“No,” said Sunshine. “I killed my parents to be here.”  
After that, they said nothing. It was Lullaby who broke the silence. “I killed my cousin because he hurt my dog…”  
Sunshine was silent for a bit before asking what happened to his dog.  
“My other cousin, when I wasn’t looking, he killed her, sliced her throat. I almost killed him too, if not for my dad stepping in. Almost didn’t get away, but I ran all the way to here and just kind of sang my frustrations out. In the middle of these woods, well near the edge actually. But that’s how dad found me.”  
Sunshine didn’t question it or even point out that Lullaby had called the Boss ‘dad’. Maybe it was because he didn’t have the heart to point out that the Boss wasn’t their dad. Maybe it was because he wanted the Boss to be his dad, looked up to him as one in fact.  
But the only time the Boss was ever called that, he burst into flames, although he never gave an explanation for that. They all just assumed that he had been angry. But now, looking back on it, actually being able to look back on it, Sunshine thought that the Boss might just have burst into flames in joy, but that was probably just hope.  
They were nearing the edge of the woods.  
“I shot a demon. It…well, I guess the Boss can sense things like that, like a demon dying?”  
Lullaby chuckled. “Wouldn’t put it past him, he’s got a lot of secrets.”  
They made it out of the woods, but they weren’t to town yet. They would have to walk down the road, the long road to the town where Sunshine hoped that his brother was staying. It was the village that he had lived in before killing his parents and running away to the Boss’s safe haven.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW for sleeping in unsanitary places and a (lamely written) fight taking place

What Sunshine found out the first night was that people liked to sleep, especially people like Lullaby and Sunshine. Having no place to rest and a long way from the house in the woods, they settled to sleep in an alleyway of garbage bags. Sunshine yawned, and Lullaby was already half asleep despite the stench.  
It was a thing they got used to, the stench, especially ones of dead bodies; though they rarely killed others, but when they did they didn’t have anywhere to put them. It was a kind of fun morbid game; where would the Boss put the next dead body?  
Once, they had put a dead body by the road, hanging from a tree. That probably started the whole ‘haunted woods’ thing, especially with the whole teenagers in white masks thing.  
Their masks weren’t all white though, they had black designs. The Boss had made all of them, though from what no one knew. Only Honey had a color on his mask, the pink of his mask’s tongue.  
Sunshine distracted himself from his thoughts by asking Lullaby a question.  
“What’s your name, like your real one?” asked Sunshine.  
Lullaby, who was practically asleep already, answered sleepily. “Maxwell.”  
“Hmmm,” thought Sunshine. “Mine’s Toby.”  
This jolted Lullaby awake, but Sunshine was already asleep.

Morning came, along with a restaurant manager who yelled at them for sleeping on his restaurant’s property. Sunshine threw a moldy banana peel at him, then grabbed Lullaby’s arm and ran.  
The man would probably tell the cops about him, but for now they were just trying to find Sunshine’s brother.  
“So, Toby huh?” asked Lullaby when they were a safe distance away.  
“Yeah, you’d think I’d remember that at least, but no,” said Sunshine. He paused. “I’m not mad, just…whatever happened that night, whatever the Boss did to heal me, healed more than just my body.”  
Lullaby nodded. “You’re lucky, y’know? No one ever gets cured of amnesia. Guess they never looked to all-powerful demons.”  
Sunshine laughed. “Yeah, who would’ve thought! The answer to all of our problems is demons.”  
“Well, probably not all of our problems,” chuckled Lullaby. “There’s probably a few that they don’t cure. In fact, they probably cause some problems too!”  
Sunshine nodded. “Like cults. I once watched YouTube video on that one cult that’s been spreading. Worshipping some demon they refer to as ‘Headlights.’” Sunshine thought for a moment. “Although our demon isn’t named much better.”  
Lullaby rolled his eyes and laughed. “You’d think demons could come up with deadlier sounding names.”  
The two turned and walked into a rather crowded alleyway, cutting their discussion of demons short. Sunshine bumped into a heavily tattooed woman who was smoking.  
“Sorry,” said Sunshine as Lullaby pulled him back.  
The woman narrowed her eyes. “Who the heck are you two?” she asked, although there was a bit more cursing.  
“Uhm, I’m Sunshine, and this is Lullaby,” said Sunshine, instantly regretting not using their real names.  
Lullaby face palmed.  
The woman studied them. “Nicknames eh? You two partners?” Although she asked it in a more offensive way than that.  
“Uh, no…I mean, we’re, like, queer platonic pals, but nothing more than that,” Lullaby explained.  
He nudged Sunshine for support, but found Sunshine with a blank look on his face, staring into the crowd.  
The woman looked them both up and down. “Alright, what do you want with us Hunters?”  
All of a sudden, Lullaby recognized the woman. “Oh,” he said, his voice a few octaves too high. “We just went down the wrong alley way, we’re new to this town…”  
The woman had been to the woods before, brought a knife with her too. Honey still had the scar. They kept a record of those who returned too much, and killed them before they discovered too much.  
The woman frowned deeply, and then Sunshine spoke up.  
“You’ve been to the woods before?” he asked.  
“Yes, I have. Still gone the bullet wound from that cameo ghost.”  
Sunshine nodded. “I’ve been there too.”  
The woman looked surprised. “You have?”  
“Yep, and someone shot me. It wasn’t any of the ghosts. I think it was one of your so called ‘Hunters,’” said Sunshine.  
The woman snorted. “Really? What did you do? Go in wearing a mask?”  
“Exactly, I thought that maybe they would think I was one of their own if I wore a mask,” said Sunshine.  
“Really? You’re boyfriend looks a bit shocked at that.”  
“Okay, so I’m lying. I got shot in those woods. I’m looking for the one who shot me. A guy named Teddy,” said Sunshine. “Looks like me, but his eyes are the same color and he’s older.  
The woman raised her eyebrows. “And so you want help?” She asked a bit more rudely then that.  
“No,” said Sunshine. He glared at her with mismatched eye then turned to walk away.  
“Man, you’ve got some guts kid. Want them ripped out for you?” asked a man who was equally tattooed and had just arrived to hear that last bit. He put his arm around the woman’s waist.  
Sunshine looked at a very confused Lullaby, his skin that wasn’t touched by vitiligo, which wasn’t very much, looked pale. That should have been enough to set Sunshine back, as you never saw Lullaby’s black skin pale, but no, Sunshine had had enough. Enough of forgotten but then remembered memories. Enough of taking the worst ends of the stick his whole life. Enough of basically everything.  
He turned and punched the guy in the gut. It shouldn’t have done anything, but Sunshine’s punch had gotten stronger by demonic means. The guy tumbled back and the girl ran at Lullaby, who defended himself with a punch to her face. It too did more than it should have.  
Sunshine kicked the guy’s feet from under him every time he charged. A circle had formed around the fight, and Sunshine now saw that there was no way to escape.  
Lullaby kicked the woman in the chest and knocked the air out of her. Sunshine somehow managed to evade every kick and punch the guy threw at him.  
All at once, Sunshine realized it. The Boss was watching over them. They were outside his territory, but he still cared about them, not just as enforcers to his will, but as sons.  
The two tattooed people were exhausted by the time the fight was over. Needless to say, the queer platonic pals had won. The circle looked anxiously at them. They had evaded most of the punched, but still had gotten hit a couple of times.  
“What’s going on here?!” shouted a man who could only be the owner of the building they were in the alleyway of.  
Sirens could be heard in the distance, but Sunshine focused on only one thing. That one thing just happened to be his brother.  
Teddy.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW for talk of parent death

It really wasn't fair, all the events that had happened to the MacElroy brothers. The car crash which had caused Toby's amnesia. Teddy abandoning the family, leaving no trace for them to follow. The fact that their parent's hadn't wanted to follow Teddy. And, finally, the death of the parents and the strange disappearance of Toby. When Teddy had returned, he found that Toby had gone missing and their parents were dead. He talked to the police. He talked to many people. But no one had any idea where Toby went. Teddy looked, far and wide, he looked. There was no trace of his little brother.

Teddy often thought about giving up, it was likely that Toby was dead, long gone along with their parents. But he never did. He always looked, tried to follow as many leads as possible.

And today, not even looking at a lead, he was going to find his brother. Not that Teddy knew that, of course.

He was talking to the owner of the place he was staying at, about the mysterious forest that was seemingly cursed. A group of people called 'Hunters' often went in there, trying to find out what was happening. Sometimes, they didn't return. Teddy had gone into the forest once, where he had seen one of the so called ghosts that guarded the forest. They weren't ghosts, he knew. He didn't want to think about what he had done, so he never mentioned anything. In the past six weeks, he had kept his secret a secret.

Everything changed when the two heard a fight break out in the alleyway where the Hunters tended to hang out.

Teddy went with the owner to stop the fight. He didn't expect to see his own face, though years younger and with mismatched eyes. His eyes met those eyes. The eyes of his brother.

Immediately, Teddy rushed forward, ignoring anyone who tried to stop him. Toby looked bruised, like he'd just been in a fight. Which he had indeed just been in a fight, Teddy realized.

Toby rushed forward too, and grabbed Teddy's arm.

"You," was all he said.

"Toby..." said Teddy. "Toby I'm so sorry."

"For shooting him?" sarcastically asked a nearby teenager, who was likely Toby's friend. He had two large spots under his eyes, white skin against his normal dark skin. Vitiligo, Teddy realized. Then he processed his words.

"What?" Teddy asked.

"It doesn't matter," Toby said, shooting a glare at his friend, who shrugged. "What does matter is that we found each other. Also I can remember things now."

Teddy looked back at his little brother. "How?" he whispered.

Toby smiled. "Well, it's a long story."


End file.
